cliché: a bum rap

Meaning: unfair blame or criticism (definition).

Example: The website got a bum rap for being difficult to reach, which was the result of a DOS attack.  (examples.)

Origins: bum as an adjective means of poor quality or useless, 19^th century; rap as a term for criminal charge comes circa 1865 (History1. History 2.) 

Rewrites:

• bum blame
• bum slam
• twisted rap
• lame critique
• cheap lip
• stretched bitch

Discussion: I have gone from very close to the original to very far from it but still encasing the meaning. This one took some work with a thesaurus.